With the holding of a Key Generation Ceremony, Saudi Arabia’s Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) has taken an important step toward the end goal of issuing digital certificates which can identify individuals or organizations.
Dr. Fahad Al-Hoymany, head of the National Center for Digital Certification (NCDC), welcomed the attendees to the ceremony and delivered a brief presentation on the objectives, functionality and work methodology of the NCDC. He also discussed the main components and security measures of the center. Then he accompanied the attendees to the highly secure data center in order to witness the Root Certification Authority Cryptographic Key Generation.
Devoteam daVinci of Norway functioned as the external auditor to vouch for the proper and secure execution of the key generation. Neill Duff, senior VP of Entrust, was on hand as the vendor representative for the PKI Solution. The launch took place under the oversight of the Communications and Information Technology Minister, Mohamed Jamil bin Ahmed Mulla and the Communications and Information Technology Commission Governor, Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Jaffary.
The Root Certification Authority Key Generation Ceremony is one of the most important milestones of the second phase of the project to issue digital certificates from NCDC. Next, the center will be implementing the final tasks in this project phase by planning the key generation ceremony for the Government Certification Authority, which will issue digital certificates to government agencies, to be followed by issuing digital certificates for businesses and individuals.
PKI is a solution to manage digital keys which are used to provide a mechanism for securing electronic transactions and securing the exchange of information in public networks. PKI provides confidentiality and integrity of information, along with identity authentication by performing digital signatures and other cryptographic functions, combined with registration and verification processes. NCDC manages and hosts the Saudi National Root Certification Authority, along with other certification systems in order to provide a highly secure and trusted environment to allow different entities to participate in e-government transactions with confidence that these transactions are safe and reliable.
